NCAA Men's Tournament 2019

J

jcgatennismom

Hall of Fame
Tcbtennis said:
Where did you hear this rumor? I hope that it is true. These changes have definitely done harm to those young players who were moving their way up at the end of last year and then found out they couldn’t enter any tournaments in 2019.
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I read something on tennis twitter about a week ago about a major announcement coming in May-cant remember who tweeted or retweeted. There have been a lot of rumors swirling about a return to a single ranking system and adding back ATP points to Futures-hope it is true but could just be wishful thinking among tweeting players. Son spoke to someone this week who had just returned from playing Futures who had heard similar rumors. UTR is ramping up an open series with some events offering more $ than Futures so if players can't earn ATP points they can at least earn $. Some American grads are even making $ playing on club teams in Europe instead or in addition to Futures-$ are better than Futures.
 
E

EP1998

Semi-Pro
It's definitely preferable to go to Europe from a money standpoint. A lot of players who end up in college are those without a lot of $$$ (Collins most recent high profile example) so there's the option of at least covering expenses and having a different experience versus trying to get a point. But that path often ends up in taking business/corp job or teaching tennis.
 
T

Tcbtennis

Hall of Fame
jcgatennismom said:
I read something on tennis twitter about a week ago about a major announcement coming in May-cant remember who tweeted or retweeted. There have been a lot of rumors swirling about a return to a single ranking system and adding back ATP points to Futures-hope it is true but could just be wishful thinking among tweeting players. Son spoke to someone this week who had just returned from playing Futures who had heard similar rumors. UTR is ramping up an open series with some events offering more $ than Futures so if players can't earn ATP points they can at least earn $. Some American grads are even making $ playing on club teams in Europe instead or in addition to Futures-$ are better than Futures.
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I just read a Twitter post by Christopher Clarey that confirms changes that you mentioned. So ATP and WTA points will be given retroactively to all tournaments from August 2018. There will also be an increase of qualifying draws to 48. It still sounds as though there will still be a double ranking system unfortunately.
 
J

jcgatennismom

Hall of Fame
Tcbtennis said:
I just read a Twitter post by Christopher Clarey that confirms changes that you mentioned. So ATP and WTA points will be given retroactively to all tournaments from August 2018. There will also be an increase of qualifying draws to 48. It still sounds as though there will still be a double ranking system unfortunately.
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That's good to hear but stinks for the college players who won MD rounds at the 9 US Futures in June and July last year. The players who cant take off fall play a lot of summer Futures. The journeymen pros play yearround so they will get back fall 2018 points. Tourney registration ends 2 1/2 or 3 weeks before tourney start so it would be hard to include early June tourneys but they should have tried to include July. Nuno Borges played 4 $15K tourneys in Portugal last summer-reaching SFs of one, finals of 2, and winning the 4th. He wont get ATP points for the first 3, but will at least get credit for the $15K he won in early August as well as winning Pensacola in Nov. US, Canada and European MD Futures are still harder than the rest of the world-many of US Futures are $25Ks but you'll still see the #1s and #2s of top 20 teams losing occasionally in Qualis of US $15ks, while players who never earned an ITA ranking are able to win one MD round in $15Ks in Africa, Central America, Mideast and some parts of South America and Asia. US Futures will even be harder this year than next since Canada cancelled all of its Futures for 2019. I wonder if Canada will bring back the Futures hosted in Sept in Niagara and Toronto with the rules changed back.
 
SavvyStringer

SavvyStringer

Professional
chris-swede said:
UNC Womens TEam should ve won easily the NCAAS. They have the best Players of all Teams, see the individuals, Graham, Morra, Davetiila all in 3rd round, Makenna Jones lost in 1st round, but thats a 4th great great Player! Plus 2 of the best doubles in Country with Jones/Morra and Aney/Graham. Still tough to understand they not won it all. They are no.1 for 2020 in my eyes as only Aney was a Senior. plus getting 2 Blue-Chips.
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UNC-Stanford was actually the final. Ask any college coach. Everyone knew that would be the toughest match and would determine who won.
 
B

bluetrain4

G.O.A.T.
Steve Johnson's accomplishments winning two individual titles after winning the team title seems more and more impressive. The NCAA individual tourney is always weird - players can be tired/burnt out, others "satisfied" for whatever reason and thus not as engaged as they might be. Upsets are normal (though a part of that is the ranking system and the sheer number of players - is the 9th ranked player really that much better than the 22nd ranked player?) And, it's obviously more of a burden for the players who went deep in the team tournament. So, for Johnson to turn around after winning team titles and on two separate occasions win six matches to take the singles title is really remarkable.
 
M

mikej

Hall of Fame
bluetrain4 said:
Steve Johnson's accomplishments winning two individual titles after winning the team title seems more and more impressive. The NCAA individual tourney is always weird - players can be tired/burnt out, others "satisfied" for whatever reason and thus not as engaged as they might be. Upsets are normal (though a part of that is the ranking system and the sheer number of players - is the 9th ranked player really that much better than the 22nd ranked player?) And, it's obviously more of a burden for the players who went deep in the team tournament. So, for Johnson to turn around after winning team titles and on two separate occasions win six matches to take the singles title is really remarkable.
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That's when it helps to have a huge serve / forehand (at least in comparison to his college peers at the time). He didn't have to spend hours grinding out there each match. But, yes, super impressive.
 
B

bluetrain4

G.O.A.T.
mikej said:
That's when it helps to have a huge serve / forehand (at least in comparison to his college peers at the time). He didn't have to spend hours grinding out there each match. But, yes, super impressive.
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I remember Mikael Pernfors won back to back in the 80s, both times after Georgia went deep in the team tournament, winning it once. And, he was more of a grinder. And, they had third place team matches back then.
 
Power Player

Power Player

Bionic Poster
Been watching this all week and I just found this thread..lol. Been loving the coverage. Of course I loved Ohio States mullet man, but he looked worn down from the prior match and just didn’t have enough gas in the tank yesterday.
 
E

EP1998

Semi-Pro
mikej said:
That's when it helps to have a huge serve / forehand (at least in comparison to his college peers at the time). He didn't have to spend hours grinding out there each match. But, yes, super impressive.
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Johnson's movement too was on another level. It's still impressive although he's wearing out from trying to hit 99% forehands
 
E

EP1998

Semi-Pro
Cameron Morra and Katrina Jokic nearly made it to both singles and doubles semis. Lots of tennis for those two.
 
F

frog1288

Rookie
Borges vs Rybakov today. Probably the two best college players (could definitely argue Wolf).

I think those three guys will all be top 200 within 12 months


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
M

mikej

Hall of Fame
frog1288 said:
Borges vs Rybakov today. Probably the two best college players (could definitely argue Wolf).

I think those three guys will all be top 200 within 12 months


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Borges is going to repeat his domination of Rybakov from a couple weeks ago, I suspect.
 
T

Tcbtennis

Hall of Fame
Today was first time the Tennis Channel really showed Jubb. He’s really good. He took the racquet out of Kovacevic’s hand.
 
Nostradamus

Nostradamus

Bionic Poster
Borges is pretty well known player in NCAA but who is this Jubb fellow ???????? LOL. nobody knows him and both of these guys with no pro potential. so I guess USTA can just give the wildcard to Tomm paul and moh
 
jhmoss1812

jhmoss1812

Rookie
Lots of chalk in both singles tourneys

#1 Borges (Mississippi State) vs #4 Jubb (South Carolina) in mens
#1 Perez-Somarriba (Miami) vs #2 Jokic (Georgia) in womens
 
Nostradamus

Nostradamus

Bionic Poster
jhmoss1812 said:
Lots of chalk in both singles tourneys

#1 Borges (Mississippi State) vs #4 Jubb (South Carolina) in mens
#1 Perez-Somarriba (Miami) vs #2 Jokic (Georgia) in womens
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man, this girl is beautiful. Go Jokic in the final.

w-tenn-2118.jpg
 
J

jcgatennismom

Hall of Fame
Disappointing that there will not be a US Open WC for a college player since the winner wont be American. Even with Petros and Gojo not playing... Thought Wolf would have an excellent chance for the WC but even the best players can have off days after a long season. After his grueling match with Vocej, he was no match the next day for a surging Riffice playing in his home state on familar courts to a former USTA PD kid- exciting for Riffice and for fans to imagine what he can bring the next 3 years.

Kudos to Kovacevic to making it to SFs-his is a story to encourage late blooming US juniors. At the beginning of his soph year, he was ranked about 150 in the nation for his class on TRN; even in Dec of his senior year, he was ranked 79 on TRN-usual recruiting level of high mid major or #6-8 mid level Power 5. However he was almost a bluechip by the end of the summer after graduation. He didnt even commit to Illinois until late summer after his graduation, and he had a rough start to his freshmen year in the fall per this article: http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/...kovacevic-thriving-new-no-1-singles-role.html Yet he finished his freshmen year clinching Illinois' 2nd rd NCAA match in 2017. His best junior ITf ranking was 528 but yesterday he beat former jr world #18 Riffice and current ATP530. Kova went from winning matches mainly at 4 his soph year to going 17-3 playing 1 his junior year. He played a lot of futures and trained with USTA PD last summer, and his hard work paid off.

It's discouraging for US juniors to think they have to already be developed and playing top world jr tennis before college. Kovacevic's journey shows that the right coaches can develop a 5 star player to compete with ATP level players-also consider what Ty Tucker did with former 3 star Alex Kobelt bringing him to the level where he could win at 5 vs many line 5s who were probably originally blue chips or 5 stars.
 
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C

CincyIllinifan

Rookie
Tennis mom - I love your posts, and I hate to be a pain, but is there any way you can break them up into a couple paragraphs?

I’ll blame it on my old eyes.
 
C

Clemson_tennis

Legend
Interesting that the SEC SEC brethren stuff has seeped into tennis too. I see the LSU men's coach absolutely giddy on twitter that SEC players are doing well in the singles and doubles events. As if his LSU team (that came nowhere close to the NCAAs) deserves some credit for Jubb and Borges's success.
 
SavvyStringer

SavvyStringer

Professional
Nostradamus said:
Borges is pretty well known player in NCAA but who is this Jubb fellow ???????? LOL. nobody knows him and both of these guys with no pro potential. so I guess USTA can just give the wildcard to Tomm paul and moh
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Jubb is the best player in college tennis that no one knows about. He won the ITA Carolina regional in the fall (carolina is Wake,Duke, UNC, no easy matches there). He’s been around or in the top 10 all season. This will be the 3rd match up of the year with Nuno. Should be a good match to watch. Nuno won the last two in the 3rd in tight matches.

As far as pro potential if anyone listens to you, pro would only be comprised of Stanford players. Nuno has been playing tourneys and has ATP points so does Jubb. Jubb won a 15k last summer and finaled in the one before the win and the one after. I think both guys are better set up than Rubin and he’s been higher than 100.
 
C

Clemson_tennis

Legend
SavvyStringer said:
Jubb is the best player in college tennis that no one knows about. He won the ITA Carolina regional in the fall (carolina is Wake,Duke, UNC, no easy matches there). He’s been around or in the top 10 all season. This will be the 3rd match up of the year with Nuno. Should be a good match to watch. Nuno won the last two in the 3rd in tight matches.

As far as pro potential if anyone listens to you, pro would only be comprised of Stanford players. Nuno has been playing tourneys and has ATP points so does Jubb. Jubb won a 15k last summer and finaled in the one before the win and the one after. I think both guys are better set up than Rubin and he’s been higher than 100.
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Rubin's career high was 125

Jubb has definitely flown under the radar. He started his college career low in the lineup and was unheralded. He was even unknown to British tennis people who follow the sport closely (I've seen a few on twitter who are only learning of his name this week). The British guy on here who always posts about players coming to the US didn't know about him.

He may be a Gamecock but he's one of my fav players in college tennis. And he's from Hull so I imagine he's a Tiger fan of another sort back in his hometown. :)
 
Nostradamus

Nostradamus

Bionic Poster
So you think a skinny girl like this would be a pusher. but this girl absolutely crushes the ball, she is one of the hardest hitters in college tennis, if not the biggest.

ITA_Jokic.jpg
 
tennisfan17

tennisfan17

Professional
Clemson_tennis said:
Rubin's career high was 125

Jubb has definitely flown under the radar. He started his college career low in the lineup and was unheralded. He was even unknown to British tennis people who follow the sport closely (I've seen a few on twitter who are only learning of his name this week). The British guy on here who always posts about players coming to the US didn't know about him.

He may be a Gamecock but he's one of my fav players in college tennis. And he's from Hull so I imagine he's a Tiger fan of another sort back in his hometown. :)
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Jubb has def been under the rader this year. Heck of a player. first time i found out about him was listening to the cracked racquets podcasts. He has a solid game and honestly plays incredibly well. He has pushed Nuno this year to three before so he def has a shot in the finals.

As far as Nuno, @Nostradamus, I think the guy is top 200 potential easily. He does everything well on the court and his ball striking is beautiful. There is a reason he is undefeated in dual matches this season and in the finals of this tourney. He is a heck of a player.
 
T

therecanbeonlyone

Semi-Pro
Nostradamus said:
So you think a skinny girl like this would be a pusher. but this girl absolutely crushes the ball, she is one of the hardest hitters in college tennis, if not the biggest.

ITA_Jokic.jpg
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wrong again. Not a pusher, but also clearly not one of the hardest hitters. I’ve seen her play this season in person and a couple times on TV. I’d call her a baseline counterpuncher. She will not be the hardest hitter in her next match, but may have the guile to win.
 
SavvyStringer

SavvyStringer

Professional
therecanbeonlyone said:
wrong again. Not a pusher, but also clearly not one of the hardest hitters. I’ve seen her play this season in person and a couple times on TV. I’d call her a baseline counterpuncher. She will not be the hardest hitter in her next match, but may have the guile to win.
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Correct. I’ve seen her play in person 3 times this year. She doesn’t really do anything with the ball. Her last match with Chen was probably awful to watch with them just hitting the ball back in. Jokic is absolutely a counter puncher who just outlasts her opponents.
 
Nostradamus

Nostradamus

Bionic Poster
therecanbeonlyone said:
wrong again. Not a pusher, but also clearly not one of the hardest hitters. I’ve seen her play this season in person and a couple times on TV. I’d call her a baseline counterpuncher. She will not be the hardest hitter in her next match, but may have the guile to win.
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Disagree. she hits hard for NCAA women. not the hardest hitter but one of the bigger hitters of the ball. she was hitting harder than her opponent today in the final for sure
 
K

KaiserW

Hall of Fame
Watching the match I felt Jokic was the better player. Better groundstrokes especially her backhand.

I think what killed her was fatigue. I believe that is why so got emotional because she knew she could win but exhaustion took over.
I think they said she played something like 15 matches in 9 days if you include doubles.
 
K

KaiserW

Hall of Fame
Nostradamus said:
Disagree. she hits hard for NCAA women. not the hardest hitter but one of the bigger hitters of the ball. she was hitting harder than her opponent today in the final for sure
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I have to agree with you. I watched a lot of tournament I thought she was one of the harder hitters especially on the backhand.
 
tennisfan17

tennisfan17

Professional
Dont know if anyone has mentioned it....

But congrats to Paul Jubb!!! Outstanding year and what a way to win the title by beating the number 1 seed who's been undefeated all dual match season
 
SavvyStringer

SavvyStringer

Professional
Dawgie Dawg said:
I told everyone on this thread when I saw the schedule with alternating men's and women's semifinals that the winner of the second men's semifinal would be at a disadvantage. Even with only Gojo's match going the distance in the late semifinal, Bresky indicated in his press conference that he thought that was a factor. There's not much shade at this facility and the heat is a big factor in central FL at this time of year. I know a person or two replied to me that these people are used to playing tough matches day after day blah blah blah - I hear that - but maybe not routinely in this relentless heat. Anyway, I think that just means the schedule should be tweaked in the future to make things more equitable - it's fine to have it in a hot climate

Also the UGA women played their semifinal second and looked a bit gassed in the final. They will have to adjust this in the future.
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They were just gassed in general. They had a long season at the top. It's difficult to carry that much expectation and make it through an SEC schedule like they did. It had nothing to do with just the timing of the semi. It was just overall season wear.
 
J

jerryjones1960

Rookie
Watching a lot of the matches the NCAA must change the format, just have to play both semifinals at the same time, total disadvantage to the teams that play the late match
 
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